A few weeks ago, I wrote about a family member that received the  jury duty “notice” in the mail. Well, as you know, I blew a gasket big time. I started calling and calling everyone: Gov. Rell’s office, State Rep. Al Adinolfi, the jury administrator’s office–for starters.

First of all-the person is a student who does not reside-get it–does not reside in Connecticut. This person does not live–repeat-does not live–in the dormitory. The person resides in an apartment-pays his own rent, works and goes to school full time.

Now the jury (oops I almost spelled jerky) duty notice asked the family member to appear on Sept. 24 at 8:15 a.m. in Meriden, Ct. Unfortunately, there is a problem: the family member lives nearly 200 miles away. Do these people realize that we have a life? We don’t wait by the mailbox for them to interrupt our lives with rediculous requests, especially when you don’t live anywhere near the venue. My family member called, wrote and tried to explain that he did not live in Connecticut anymore. He provided his new address. But, the Jury Administration continued to send correspondence to the Connecticut address. It was like they were in denial.

Finally I got in on it placed the first call to the Jury Administration. They were very pleasant but they insisted that the family member had to go come hell or high water. I kept looking at the notice to make sure the government hadn’t re-instated the draft because that is how they acted. No, there is NO ONE ELSE in Connecticut to call to serve on the jury duty. They have to have my son appear or else the whole criminal justice system will go down the tubes. “Oh, he can postpone it for 10 months. All well and good, but that leaves us in July and as I stated above, he does not come home. He has a job. He goes to summer school. “Oh when he comes to the courthouse after driving nearly 200 miles, he can just tell the judge he is a student and the judge will dismiss him. Not so simple. What about all that time he just spent on the road getting there and now having to turn right around and drive back? Hello?

Well, I asked, what about on break, i.e. Christmas holiday, winter break, spring break, can he postpone it until then? “Oh no, the break has to be for at least a two week period. You know, come on!!  They are not even being reasonable.

So then, I called Gov. Rell’s office. The person on the other end of that line told me that the Governor can’t get involved in judicial matters because she is the Governor and with the Executive branch. Oh really, I said, then why is she making comments about the Petit murder and we should have the three strikes rule and she may go to the three strikes rally in Cheshire, blah blah. Suffice to say, that ended that conversation. Can you believe it!! I know I am important and so is my family. I expected the Governor to drop everything and help us.  Doesn’t she realize who called her? I sometimes wonder where some peoples priorities lie.

Then I called Al Adinolfi’s office. The spokesperson was very nice. He listened and we spoke ( uh, I spoke most of the time).  I told him that the State wanted my son to give up his license in order not to be eligible for jury duty. No, my son is not going to give up anything. Connecticut needs to straighten out its judicial system first. We already see what the problems are: people let out on parole that should have stayed behind bars–people slipping through the cracks of our court system: laws that are not evenly enforced: people driving without licenses for over 20 years–appearing in court on a monthly basis, and still being allowed to drive. I mean come on, as I stated in an earlier post, if our courts can’t hand down a sentence to this person with no driver license how do we expect them to handle something as complex as a person on parole!! It is a joke!! Oh ha ha ha, no license–oh ha ha–oh we will drop the fine honey its ok!! This is what one of the prosectors said when I went to court with this person. One prosecutor said one thing, then another said something else. Enforce the law will you please. Why are they on the books, for our health, or to give some copy editor something to do?

WHAT TYPE OF MESSAGE ARE THEY SENDING TO THIS PERSON?

Well, finally, I ended back up with the jury administrators office who said they would look into the matter and call me back. To my surprise they did call the next day. It was a nice woman named Tammy. She contacted my son and told him she would send him a form asking him to list his off campus address. This would make him an out of state resident and ineligible for jury duty AT THIS TIME in his life.

Thank youTammy for understanding my sons dilemma. Thank God they did not call my son in Montreal. Could you imagine that one: 14 hours one way to go to the Voir Dire only to find out you did not make the cut. No!!

I asked Rep. Al Adinolfi’s office to look into a bill that would make full time students ineligible for jury duty until they graduated. Rep. Al Adinolfi’s spokesperson said that idea might be against the 26th amendment granting 18 year olds the right to vote. I am sorry but I don’t get it. Eighteen year olds can vote, enter into a contract, get drafted, get picked for jury duty, but cannot drink alcohol. Look either you are an adult or you are not. You can’t pick and choose when you think it is appropriate for someone to be an “adult” to suit your needs whether you like it or not. If you are not a full adult in the eyes of the state of Connecticut until you are 21, then in my opinion, that is when you should be eligible for jury duty.

It is amazing that you are an “infant” in the eyes of the law when it comes to drinking, but you are an adult enough to be drafted and be on a jury and decide someones fate!! It doesn’t make sense. Oh well, that is life I guess. Anyway, problem solved for now. And no I do not advocate drinking AT ANY AGE!!